Up until recently, this was the snow leopard of Christmas songs in my family.
For decades, my parents swore up and down that several years ago, they saw Mac Davis on the Tonight Show, singing a song about getting plastered over the holidays. No one, however, could remember the name of the song, or any of the lyrics....
I am proud to announce that the magic of YouTube has finally closed the case on this mystery. Other things I learned on the Internet:
Mac Davis wrote "A Little Less Conversation" for Elvis.
Bruce Springsteen doesn't really excite me the way he used to. I suspect that's true for most of us (....well, except for the ones for whom it isn't. Which always strikes me as strange and a little bit sad, but whatever). Anyway, I used to mark the official start of the holiday season by whenever I first heard this song on the radio. And it always put me in a great mood. This isn't the version that's on the radio each year, but I like it a little better. Springsteen is more awkward on stage, but he also seems to be genuinely enjoying himself, and not displaying any of that odd, swaggering self-consciousness that the elder Springsteen lives within.
You should know up front: this song is dark. Strip out the walking bass line, the holiday production, and the delightful lyric "He said he might just have to beat the crap out of Ray," and it's all bad. That having been said, this is a really well-written song.
This song was a mainstay of Christmastime FM Radio when I was growing up (not to mention those early days of MTV, when this video basically ran every hour the last two weeks of December). Total cheese, in the best kind of way. Somewhere along the line, I started denying the fact that I like Billy Squire. That ends today.
Never had any use for Bing's version of this song; it always sounded like a funeral dirge to me. Bob B. Soxx And The Blue Jeans' version is another matter entirely. If you don't believe me, just skip to the :58 mark. Nice job, Mr. Spector.
I'm going to do this. I will enjoy Christmas. And it won't be as easy as it sounds.
This holiday season finds me lonely, anxious, and just not in a great state of mind. Money is tight. And we're still living in an apartment that's too cramped for even a small Christmas tree. And more than anything, I find myself actually dreading Christmas morning. I know it sounds crazy, but I used to love working on Christmas day. Waking long before dawn to be with people in need? That brought me more happiness than anyone really knows - certainly more Christmas joy than I think I've ever experienced as an adult. I'm fortunate to have experienced that. But it kills me to know I won't be there this year, with the people I came to know and love as my "other family". It certainly isn't my choice. I have to shake it off, though, for the sake of my family and my own sanity. Because I do love Christmas, and I'll only be more depressed if I allow the holidays to come and go under emotional cloud cover. And so, I'm introducing the Christmas Take-Over. For the next four weeks, I'll be posting nothing but my favorite Christmas music. Happy songs, sad songs, funny songs.....all of them centering me around a time of year that I'm accustomed to loving.
I'm counting on this to put me in a better mood, and I hope it does the same for the rare and infrequent visitors who find this blog. Today, we start with "We Need a Little Christmas," as interpreted by AgesandAges. I'll be up front: I have historically detested this song. I loathe the marching goofiness of it, the dopey children's chorus, and most especially of all, the Broadway musical that spawned it (....long a story about that one, which I will not be sharing here).
But I have to admit that AgesandAges nails it. For the first time, an artist strikes an appropriate tone for what this song is actually about: "We Need A Little Christmas" isn't so much about celebrating, it's about seeking distraction from a forlorn existence.
It's not about powering through the holidays, it's about hiding behind them. And that's something I think I can relate to. Enjoy.
